Monday, March 27, 2017

In the school finance discussion, some of us old-timers tend
to paraphrase Uncle Rico’s “back in ‘82” by saying, “back in ’92.”So, I am going to go Uncle Rico on you with a
memory of one of the discussion items from when the School District
Equalization Act was passed.Back in ’92
there was a concern that districts would not be able to spend responsibly
anything over a 10% increase in state funding.This was not true then and it is not true now.In fact, our own Mark Tallman has created a
list of things that KASB thinks need to be done for the sake of Kansas students.He outlined it in his testimony on HB 2410.

Our list starts with something we all know both intuitively and
empirically- the single most important factor in a student’s education is the
quality of the teacher.To staff schools
at 2008 levels in Kansas, we need 1,000 additional teachers.One. Thousand. Teachers. And in 2008 Kansas
had fewer students, many of our districts have seen significant increases in
enrollment. One thousand teachers would
allow Kansas to get class sizes back to a level that makes a difference for
students and teachers.

If you follow Kansas education, you know that finding 1,000
teachers to fill those jobs will not be easy.We have a teacher shortage now.One reason we have a teacher shortage is we have slipped from a bad 37th
to an abysmal 41st in national rankings for teacher salaries.That’s right, we went from "worse to
worser," to paraphrase a former student.We get top ten results while paying our teachers bottom ten wages.If we want to attract the best and brightest
to teach Kansas students, we must be prepared to pay the people who make the
most difference for kids.Mark’s analysis
includes inflationary increases for educators.

Another truism in education is that preschool makes a
difference, especially for our at-risk students.KASB suggests that we double the number of
PreK teachers in Kansas. The data on the language gap in preschool children
from impoverished homes is shocking.Quality
preschool is how we help close the 30-million-word vocabulary gap.

Our Kansas State Board of Education has set new goals for
Kansas Education.We want to be the best
in the world.If Kansas is to be a
viable state, we must have the best workforce, and the best people in the
world.The first step is providing counselors
and social workers at levels necessary to provide families and students the help
they need to know how the want to contribute to society.An additional 750 positions bring us to the
minimum recommended levels.

The Kansas Supreme Court specifically mentioned that 25% of
our students are below proficient levels in math and reading.Targeted assistance for our students must
continue and be enhanced.It is no
longer enough just to be proficient.The
Kansas State Board has set a goal for all students to be college and career
ready.At a minimum, interventions for
those students will cost what the Governor’s own endorsed programs would.

If Kansas is to “Lead the world in the success of each
student,” trying to figure out the minimum we can to get by just won’t do.It will require keeping the best educators in
the world, recruiting the best educators in the world, and giving the best
educators in the world the tools and resources they need to succeed.

Back in 82, Uncle Rico said “if Coach
woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would've been state champions. No doubt.” We don’t want to be lamenting
coulda, woulda, and shoulda with our most prized resource. In 2017, Kansas
students need the resources and support of great educators to be world
champions.

How would additional funding be used to help all students
meet or exceed the Rose capacities, with a special focus on students not
currently at grade level or at-risk of not completing school?

Double pre-K teachers to double preschool enrollment;
580 positions times average teacher salary of $55,454$32.2 million

Increase school counselor and social worker positions
(currently 1,500)
by 50 percent; 750 positions times average teacher salary of $55,454$41.6 million

Provide intensive services to students below grade level in
reading or math
(such as Reading Roadmap) at average cost of $1,000 per student
to all students below grade level (25% x 462,595 = 115,649)$115.7
million

Provide intensive services to students below college ready
at average cost of $1,000 per student (38% x 462,595 = $175.8)$175.8
million

Provide Jobs for America’s Grads services (or similar)
at av cost of $1,230
for 40 percent of studs grades 9-12 based on income or other risk (56,000)$68.8 million

Thursday, March 9, 2017

What do Donald Trump’s tweets, Kim Kardashian’s closet, and
Kansas school finance have in common? All three must be on a list of most scrutinized subjects of the past
five years! I don’t follow our President
on Twitter, and I am not connected to Kim’s Instagram account, but I do pay
some attention to Kansas school finance and the subject du jour seems to be the
juxtaposition of funding and accountability.

When the Kansas Legislature took over a majority of the funding
responsibility from most local districts in 1992, they also gained a larger
interest in the performance of the students in those schools. The Kansas Constitution clearly gives the legislature
an interest in financing an ever-improving system, so the legislature is well
within their rights to ask how the system of public schools are performing.

The courts have consistently recognized that funding and
student performance are inextricably intertwined, and the wisdom of Kansas
citizens prevailed when the Kansas State Board of Education was created and
given “self-executing powers.” The creation of the State Board gave the
legislature an equal partner in accountability for student performance in
Kansas schools. In 1992, legislators
formally recognized they had a larger interest in student achievement, and that
the state board of education is the best elected body to take responsibility
for maintaining high standards and accountability at the state level. The 1992 School District Finance and Quality
Performance Accreditation Act, by its title, demonstrated trust in the Kansas
State Board of Education’s ability to hold schools accountable through the then
system of accreditation called Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA).

In Kansas, accountability is a function of accreditation. Accreditation is a duty of the Kansas State
Board of Education. QPA has morphed over
the years, changing from a system based upon improvement and process in its
early stages, to one modeled after No Child Left Behind with its over-reliance
on standardized testing, to a brand-new system of accreditation/accountability
called Kansas Education Systems Accreditation (KESA). KESA is far more rigorous
and robust than the NCLB/QPA system it replaces. KESA requires school districts to take a hard
look at results but through a broader lens of student success and not just
student achievement.

I recall well the first time I used the term “student
achievement” in a discussion with Commissioner Randy Watson. The Commissioner sternly admonished me,
explaining that achievement implies a test score, and that we are concerned
with “student performance and success” which implies a far more broad and complete
look at what we want for our children.

What has worked well in Kansas is a system designed and
monitored by the Kansas State Board of Education that sets clear standards for
success, allows local boards of education to implement programs to meet those
standards, and monitors the performance of how well districts meet those
standards. This system places
responsibility for accountability for student success in the hands of parents
and patrons, locally elected school boards, the state board of education, and
the legislature.

The results of a 25-year cooperative relationship between
the Kansas Legislature, Kansas State Board of Education, and local boards of education:

KansasEducationLevels

1990

2014

24Year% Change

Average Per Yr over Pop. Growth

Percent

Number

Percent

Number

Population 25 years and over

1,565,936

1,881,521

20.2%

Less than 9th Grade Education

7.7%

120,577

3.9%

73,379

-39.1%

9th to 12th Grade,no diploma

11.0%

172,253

5.8%

109,128

-36.6%

High school graduate only (includes equivalency)

32.5%

508,929

26.5%

498,603

-2.0%

Some college, no degree

21.9%

342,940

24.1%

453,447

32.2%

0.5%

>Associate's degree

5.4

84,561

8.1%

152,403

80.2%

2.5%

Bachelor's degree

14.1%

220,797

20.3%

381,949

73.0%

2.2%

Graduate or professional degree

7.0%

109,616

11.3%

212,612

94.0%

3.1%

The 2017 Kansas Legislature would be wise to reflect on
history and delegate school accountability to the Kansas State Board of
Education as was done 25 years ago. The
partnership between KSDE and the legislature has created a school system that
consistently ranks in the top 10 in the country on a host of measures. This is not to say that the legislature
should not ask questions and demand evidence of continuing improvement, although
it does mean that there should be a partnership of responsibility for
accountability for student success in Kansas.

Now, that we have solved that problem, anyone want to talk
about what Kim wore to the Oscars?

John Heim is executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards. He is Kansas born and raised, and has lived in 15 different communities around Kansas...from Shawnee to Leoti, Independence to Clilfton...